


Savior of the Drowning

by loserlordtaur



Category: Homestuck
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-16
Updated: 2014-06-16
Packaged: 2018-02-04 21:58:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1794607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loserlordtaur/pseuds/loserlordtaur
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Karkat realizes Dave has been gone for an hour, only to find him sulking in his room.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Savior of the Drowning

**Author's Note:**

> One day I was thinking about a lot of davekat and then this idea suddenly appeared ???  
> Hope you enjoy though !!!

Something was wrong. Something was very strange and wrong.

Dave has been gone for a whole hour.

You have just realized this and know that Dave does not just disappear for a whole hour. Thirty minutes, you get, but he would definitely not hang in his room ALONE for an hour. Unless Terezi was there.

If so, then that would hurt like hell. 

And if Dave _were_ to disappear, the longest he would, would just tell you that he’s attempting to actually prank you. He tells you that he’s taken slight interest in John’s dumb tricks and pranks and bullshit because he wishes he were able to be in either the same meteor or golden ship as him. Recently though, he’s not really been pranking. Probably because he sucks, but he’s never even mentioned that he’s stopped. You mean, he still does _sometimes_ , but just barely now. He especially doesn’t do this with you anymore. How were you able to notice this, but really, why you? You haven’t really thought about it much.

And who are you again? Well, duh, you’ve always known your name. You’re Karkat Vantas. You’re currently worried about that stupid human Dave Strider who’s been stuck with you and three other friends on this meteor. By now, you’ve lost track what uh… _year_ it is. 

You step on the transportalizer and come across Rose who was sitting down. She was probably reading a book or looking at something, but from the position you’re standing in, you can’t tell. You don’t care. 

“Where’s Dave?” You ask her. 

Rose nearly jumped, not expecting you presence. You feel a bit guilty, but she turns around and huffs in, what, relief? Did she expect Terezi to have such a voice like yours all of a sudden? You don’t even know where the hell she is if you don’t think about that worse case scenario.

“Oh, hi Karkat. I think he’s in his room. Or… his Respiteblock. Where all his stuff is.”

Rose still doesn’t completely understand Alternian culture, but Kanaya’s right there to help her. You’re not sure if you care. Kanaya’s been spending time with Rose a lot more now, and you feel more distant from her. It’s not like you have any feelings for her anyway. Friends are friends. You just don’t like losing any. 

You nearly got lost in though and almost forgot to transportalize back. But you couldn’t forget about Dave. You really couldn’t forget about him. 

You never forgot about him once.

You immediately transportalized back to the previous room you were in. You knew where Dave’s meteor Respiteblock is and you instantly started running towards it.

Something is wrong, and you’re going to find out what is. 

As soon as you reached his door, you started banging on it.

“ _DAVE!_ Guess who?” 

Usually Dave responds with some stupid name that you’ve never heard of before. There was no answer for a second, and you were slightly convinced that he wasn’t there. Until you heard an answer through the thin door. 

And it surprised and probably scared the shit out of you.

“Karkat.”

You hesitated longer than he did. You started banging on the door again.

“Strider, what’s wrong? You’ve been gone for a whole goddamned hour, and that’s not right. _Obviously_ , there’s something wrong, and I need to know NOW.” 

“No, there isn’t anything wrong. You just interrupted my rapping session. I was having a hella nice one I guess it lasted longer than I expected.”

“You told me that you never once had a rapping session for an _entire hour_ and you always keep track of time! I mean, you’re the Knight of Time for fucks sake!”

“Oh well my bad, we’ve been on this meteor for a long time, maybe I actually lost track of it. Oh, I also wonder, what if this costume was fake? I never reached God Tier I just wanted to wear a rad outfit like this.”

“God DAMMIT, Dave, you and I know that the game doesn’t work like that and there’s NO WAY you could’ve gotten into that outfit the exact same time Rose _actually_ reached God Tier.” 

“Alright, fine, you caught me, but I’m still busy. Come back tomorrow.”

“ _TOMORROW!?_ Are you fucking out of your mind!? You can’t rap for the rest of the day!!”

“Of course I can’t, I’ll take personal breaks in here and then after that, I continue rapping. And maybe there are points where I’m not rapping. Maybe I’m thinking. Maybe I’m trying to practice these time powers. Maybe I’m from the future.”

“No you’re not.”

You could hear a muffled ‘Yeah I know’ from Dave. The door was very thin, only someone with bad hearing wouldn’t be able to hear him.

“Now, _something_ is wrong and I’m going to find out. Can I come in?”

“No.”

“You either let me come in or I force myself to!”

“Dude, are you even trying to make everything you say not come out completely wrong?”

You blushed a bit realizing what he meant. No of course you don’t mean the things you say to sometimes come out as sexual. It just constant mistakes and most definitely will _not_ turn into a habit.

“No!!! So are you letting me in?”

“No." 

“I will come in!”

“Please don’t.”

“I don’t care, I will!!!”

“No.”

You stared at the door with what you felt was raging fury. You had it. You took a couple of steps back and paused for a second. Then, you slammed your fist against the door, making an incredibly loud banging sound. You swore you just cracked it a little.

Dave instantly responded. “Okay, fine, fine, you can come in” 

You took the doorknob and slowly opened the door, revealing himself to a nearly pitch black room.

“Shit it’s dark.” You mutter.

You can barely see a thing, and yet you lived on a planet for six sweeps where you were always awake at dark because the sunlight wasn’t very kind to your skin. The only thing… or person you could see was Dave.

 He was lying. He wasn’t having any rap sessions at all. He was lying on the floor, his hood over his head and an attempt to cover himself with his cape. You just see his side slowly rising and falling with what looked like short breaths.

This scared you though. Seeing Dave fucking Strider in a position like this seemed unimaginable, but yet you’re here. You’re standing. You slowly closed the door behind you. You faced him, his back facing you. All you could see were shades of red and just the smallest bit of yellow hair sticking out from his hood. Your chest starting pounding with pain and worry and wondered why Dave was basically avoiding your questions.

You ran over to him, ever so slightly hovering your body over him just to get a good enough glimpse of the front of his body and face.

“Okay Dave, you obviously lied to me right through that door. That means something is up. What’s wrong?” You asked him.

“Sure, I lied.” Dave replied. “I was just trying to convince you so you could leave.”

“You didn’t answer my question. What’s wrong?”

“Absolutely nothing I just might’ve taken a nap here.”

“In the dark? You’re wearing damn shades, how the hell will you even be able to me right now if you turned your head?”

“I would slightly. You would just be I guess… Darker. Dunno how to really explain it but it doesn’t matter.”

“You’re a fucking idiot.” You sighed.

“An hour ago you basically told everyone, not including Gamzee that you were heading to your respiteblock or room. An hour has passed and I was the only one who noticed that you being gone for an hour wasn’t fucking right. Now you’re Rose’s quote on quote _brother_ whatever the hell that means, I keep forgetting. You’re pretty damn good friends with Terezi though I would’ve been pretty fucking surprised and devastated if I saw you making some make-outs with her right now or something. You also know Kanaya somewhat well and you’ve told all of us a lot about yourself. And I never forgot any of it. Well shit, that sounded cheesy, but see me as the only one who fucking cares right now because I came here to check on _you_. You’re worrying me nearly to damn death!”

Dave paused, then turned his head to face Karkat’s.

“Well I understand the worry part with that terrified look you have on your face.”

He hesitated.

“Though I don’t see why you bothered.” He turned his head back to facing away from you.

“Get up.”

“What?”

“I said get up or I’ll go down with you and end up having to fucking lie down and hug your filthy back.”

“No thanks.”

You crouched down and held an elbow on your knee while your other hand poked Dave.

“Dave.”

“No." 

“Dave. Dave. Dave. Dave." 

“I’m alright. It’s fine. It’s okay. I’m fine.” 

“No your not. Get up. Remember what I just said. I seem to be the only one who cares right now, so get up.”

“Alright fine.”

Dave adjusted himself so he could push himself up and start sitting. He then turned to you, his hood still on and still wrapped in his long cape. 

“Now, I’m being serious. Tell me. What’s wrong.”

Dave sighed and finally answered truthfully.

“Y’know or well maybe you don’t know, my emotions and feelings and stuff have been mixed up toward someone… It’s really bothering me, hell, I can’t tell what kind it is. Either some sort of strong platonic lover or small romantic love or something, I dunno.”

“To who?”

Dave froze as if he didn’t expect this question. He sighed again, heavier and answered.

“To you.”

To you? You, Karkat goddamn-fucking-asshole-nobody-should-like-ever Vantas? But how? You shouldn’t freak out though or else it’ll make Strider feel terrible. It did, without control, make you blush a bit. It’s not hard to catch a troll blushing, which made you feel embarrassed. Well he’s got those shades, so maybe he won’t see it. But yet again... whatever.

“And you don’t know what it is?”

“No. I guess, what does that mean in your weird troll romance?”

“Well according to the not-so-dumb Alternia romance…” You forgot you were being super serious for a second. “I mean according to Alternia romance, you’re either feeling very pale with me, as in a strong desire to be Moirails with me, or feeling a small flushed crush, as in a small desire to be Matesprites with me.”

Dave sighed yet again. For some reason it was starting to get annoying. You started to sit, yourself, after catching your legs shaking in pain, due to the pretty weak stamina they have. You could compare them to Tavros’ old paralyzed legs and see only a few major differences.

“Well, I didn’t really know how to confront you. You didn’t seem to show much interest yourself and I thought whenever I was talking you weren’t listening that much.”

“Shut up, of course I was. I guess sorry if it didn’t seem I wasn’t.”

“I’m being very stupid though. I’ve sort of imagined myself as a stupid guy for a while. I had really no problem saying that I love people before because it wasn’t genuine, it was ironic. But I never really had these feelings before. It made me hide like a cowardly baby or whatever that means in your troll language, grub I think.”

“Close enough.” You interrupt for a split second.

“Like, hey, people see me as a cool guy who probably worries about things a lot, but had a strife with his bro at least one a day using damn swords. And hey, this guy seems really cool because he kept using swords while playing this game, and making them look more cool and killing monsters with them. I mean, hell, this guy’s sprite has a sword through his chest, how rad is that. There’s no way he could get sad because he’s so awesome. He also has mad amazing rapping skills and tons of apple juice, he has the good life. There’s no way he could get sad. But no.” He paused. 

“I made a fool out of myself involving feelings like wow, hahah hey how pathetic is that? No one should want to talk to me ever again.”

This enraged you. Why would Dave think of such terrible things like this? You need to set things straight. Now.

“Dave…”

“What?” 

“SHUT UP!” You shouted.

“All of that, what you just said, is _bullshit_. Absolute bullshit. Feelings and dealing with emotions are a hard fucking thing man; it’s nothing you can stably control.  Only a miracle worker would actually be able to handle emotions smoothly, and I’m not going to bring Gamzee up one damn bit. I get why you’d hide yourself here because it only seems the easiest thing to do. Approaching people isn’t always the easiest thing especially when it comes to dealing with romance. I’d honestly want to say ‘Fuck romance!’ but I can’t—“ 

You suddenly felt Dave move and felt his body pressing against you, arms wrapped around your back. He was hugging you, obviously. You guess he didn’t need to hear more. You don’t know. You stare at his back, only able to see part of his wrinkled cape still hanging from it.

You thought something. And for some reason it incredibly shocked you.

Should you... pap him?

You mean, that’s a thing Moirails do. To calm each other down. You did that to Gamzee once before and it pretty much calmed him down. Thing is you two aren’t in a pale relationship anymore. So would it be okay to replace him with Dave?

…Are troll/alien or human or whatever relationships even allowed?

You really have to, though. This Strider is in pain. And if you didn’t _care_ you wouldn’t even have bothered looking for him in the first place.

You have to.

And you do so.

“……shoosh…..” You mutter.

“What?” Dave asked.

“I said shoosh.” You say as you land another pap.

You could tell he was genuinely confused.

“It’s… It’s what you do when you’re moirails with someone.”

“What does that supposed to mean?” Oh right, you’re talking to the expert of troll romance here. 

“Well it’s sort of like your relationship with John but sort of closer. You really look out for each other and keep each other grounded and stuff?”

“So basically a platonic relationship. Oh yeah I remember you telling me about it before. Damn… your kind of romance is just confusing.” He dug his face into your shirt while he spoke, so you heard muffled sounds between his words. 

“Yeah… Are you crying?” You felt something wet land on your back. Your shirt wasn’t that thick to be honest. You also heard small sniffing.

“No... no I’m not.”

“Stop lying.” 

“Okay fine. I just… well I don’t want to sound cheesy or anything. I never really said anything… uncool before.”

“Shut the fuck up, be as corny as your need, I’m literally the only one hearing because who the hell knows where Terezi and Gamzee are, and apparently Rose is busy, and I bet Kanaya is just looking for her. Being cheesy anyway isn’t uncool, the only uncool thing is actual shit.” 

“I can think of a few other uncool things…” His voice starting quivering as you felt more tears land on your thin shirt. 

You suddenly let go of the hug and grabbed Dave’s glasses and accidentally threw them not far from you. You grabbed his shoulders and stared into his eyes. Okay yeah that sounded like you were in some sort of flushed situation.

You really did pay attention to the red iris in his eyes, though. It looked just like how yours are probably going to turn into one day, minus the bright orange near-yellow color. You stare at the tears streaming down his face. Christ, you feel so bad for him. But for some reason it makes you feel a bit embarrassed? You’ve pretty much worried about lots of other people before. But you’ve never gone through something like this before. This emotional you mean.

“Stop crying.” You say. 

“Sorry.”

“There’s no reason to be…” You reach forward and kiss his cheek.

“I may be asking to be your Moirail or something, but it doesn’t stop me from doing that. Stop crying, Strider. Come on.” 

Dave froze and then immediately started wiping his tears.

“Wow I’m such a baby.” He said.

“When will you learn to shut up?” You think the baby term meant wiggler in your language but you can’t completely remember. You guess based off of Dave's guess earlier, you think you're right. You tried to sneak a smirk, but he obviously caught it.

“Well you’re a baby, too, based off the amount of times you cried.” He started to grin.

“Oh come on, that doesn’t make me one of your ‘babies’” you giggled a bit.

Dave laughed and lightly punched you in the shoulder, which made you release your hands from his shoulders.

You continued joking around for a while, completely unaware the lights were still off.

It didn’t matter though. You guess you’re now this guy’s moirail? You’d probably need another, short, emotional conversation about that. Some other time.


End file.
